That Inevitable List

And where would we be without that inevitable end-of-year round up, dear readers? I bet you´d like to know which albums were loved the most at For The Sake Of The Song headquarters this year. So without further ado, here goes... in no particular order.

Bob Dylan´s latest Bootleg Series installment, Tell Tale Signs, has been in heavy rotation since the day it came out. The exorbitant price tag on the 3-disc set was definitely a minus, but that´s about the only beef I have with it. A treasury.

Bob Dylan - Marchin´ To The City MP3

To me, Bonnie Prince Billy is the finest living singer/songwriter of the last fifteen years. You can´t go wrong with the remarkably lighthearted Lie Down In The Light.

Bonnie Prince Billy - For Every Field There´s A Mole MP3

Tunng side-project The Accidental released a nice batch of intriguing songs in freak folk territory on There Were Wolves. Dark, haunting and utterly beautiful.

The Accidental - Time And Space MP3

Scoring high in almost every end of year list, and with good reason, Bon Iver´s emotional For Emma, Forever Ago is a surprisingly original debut. Bonus points for being written and recorded in a remote Wisconsin hunting lodge.

Bon Iver - Flume MP3

Worthy successors to the Creedence throne, the Drive-By Truckers simply rock on. And on. Without ever sounding shallow. Brighter Than Creation´s Dark is another winner by a great band.

Drive-By Truckers - The Righteous Path MP3

Mark Kozelek´s Sun Kil Moon was one of my biggest discoveries this year. Late, I know. April is a desolate, yet uplifting masterpiece. Hurry and buy the edition that contains a 4 song bonus disc.

Sun Kil Moon - Moorestown MP3

Band Of Horses guitarist Tyler Ramsey proved with A Long Dream About Swimming Across The Sea that he´s a singer/songwriter in his own right. I guess Neil fans will love this. I know I do.

Tyler Ramsey - Ships MP3

It´s been 28 years since obscure outlaw Larry Jon Wilson´s last made an album, so let´s call it an understatement that this delightful selftitled comeback was way overdue... More on Larry Jon soon, I promise.

Larry Jon Wilson - Whore Trilogy MP3

Honorable mentions - because their albums were good but not great, or simply because I didn´t get a chance to play them much yet - go to Fleet Foxes, Silver Jews, Sumner Brothers, Le Loup, Woodpigeon and Port O´Brien. I haven´t heard Sugar Mountain yet either, but I´m pretty sure that ´68 Neil Young concert registration will prove to win the long-overdue-album of the year award. Or will that honour go to Hank Williams´ Unreleased Recordings box set? Come on Santa, rock me.

There were quite a few excellent music books as well that kept me busy this year. The Townes Van Zandt bio To Live´s To Fly by John Kruth, Jim Walsh´s oral history of the Replacements All Over But The Shouting and Julian Cope´s Japrocksampler all got write-ups in these pages already. I also enjoyed Hand Me My Travellin´ Shoes a lot, Michael Gray´s in-depth search for Blind Willie McTell, and dug the rock ´n´ roll fables and sonic storytelling of Mitch Myers in The Boy Who Cried Freebird. Check ´em out, y´all.

Fever pitch Grab Bag

Welcome to Grab Bag, that weekly roundup of songs that got a lot of airplay here over the past week. And what have we got for you this fine Friday night? Tom Waits of course, as I´ve got my tix for his July concert in Barcelona, plus a great Waits cover by the one and only Lydia Lunch. Ole Hank gets some airplay again, just because he´s the undisputed number one in my all time top ten of country artists. Saint Nick makes an appearance with a ship song, while those brilliant freakfolkers called Tunng sing a song of the sea. For all you blues lovers out there we take a look at the magnificent Skip James Today! album. And good news for the footy haters among you: the Speedtwins provide a fitting soundtrack to the upcoming European Championships madness... I probably won´t be posting here as much as I´d like to in the coming week, as we´ve got friends coming over and there´s loads and loads of football matches to be watched. Fever pitch! Bring it on.

They may have been way expensive, but I´m still very excited that I´ve got tickets to see Tom Waits here this July. So let´s celebrate with a great Waits cover by no wave godmother Lydia Lunch. She makes the song her own almost effortlessly, like Tom wrote it especially for her. And those trademark semi-bored vocals crack me up every time. Find it on the tribute album New Coat Of Paint - The Songs Of Tom Waits (Manifesto ´01). "Well this stuff will probably kill you, let's do another line, what you say you meet me down on Heartattack and Vine..." And here´s the goateed master himself, live in Stockholm back in ´99. "See that little Jersey girl in the see-through top, with the peddle pushers sucking on a soda pop, well I bet she's still a virgin but it's only twenty-five 'til nine, you can see a million of 'em on Heartattack and Vine."

Lydia Lunch (featuring Nels Cline) - Heartattack And Vine MP3

Tom Waits - Heartattack And Vine (live in Stockholm 14-7-´99) MP3

Over at the very interesting Star Maker Machine blog, this week´s theme is ´boats´. Check it out, as the ever growing army of contributors has posted a lot of interesting songs with a nautical flavour there. And here´s one more, with a solemn Nick Cave advising you to burn your bridges and let your hair hang down on this impressive single (Mute ´90). Next week´s theme on Starmaker is ´advice´ by the way, featuring songs that tell you what to do, or what not to. Can´t wait what everybody will come up with...

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Ship Song MP3

"Bring me a song of the sea, sing me a song of the sea." Let´s stay in the briny for a bit longer with Tunng, purveyors of fine freakfolk since 2005. A gorgeous melody, with just enough electronica and samples to keep things interesting. Everybody even remotely attracted to the genre should buy their debut album This Is... Tunng (Static Caravan ´05) immediately. And as a bonus track, here´s the equally impressive Wolves by Tunng side project The Accidental. Find it on the recently released There Were Wolves (Full Time Hobby ´08).

Tunng - Song Of The Sea MP3

The Accidental - Wolves MP3

Bluestime now. Skip James made his most legendary recordings back in the early thirties. Amazing stuff, but the sound quality is hard to handle for some. That´s no problem with the best album James recorded after his rediscovery by blues scholars in the sixties. Skip James Today! (Vanguard ´65) is one of these records I can listen to almost every day. What a voice! Most tracks find Skip on guitar, like the exquisite Cypress Grove. "I will drink muddy water, I'll sleep in a hollow log, before I stay up here, honey, treated like a dog." But seated behind the piano - as on How Long for instance - the results are just as fine.

Skip James - Cypress Grove MP3

Skip James - How Long MP3

If you haven´t done so already, please submit your votes over at the Setting The Woods On Fire blog. The Motor City cowboy who runs the place is on a blogging hiatus at the moment, but in the meantime he´s desperate to know your favorite country artists. Johnny Cash is currently in the lead, with Hank Williams hot on his heels. Now I love the man in black of course, but I maintain that the title should go the the father of them all: ole Hank. Here´s my all time favorite Hank Williams song, Weary Blues From Waitin´. "Oh sweet mama, please come home..." Sadness incarnate. Find it on 40 Greatest Hits (PolyGram).

Hank Williams - Weary Blues From Waitin´ MP3

Tension mounts here as it´s only three days until Holland takes on Italy, the current champion of the world, in the European Championships. Its´gonna be a tough one, but I´ve got plenty confidence in the lads. Forza Olanda! For those of you who are not into the beautiful game - hey, nobody´s perfect - here´s an anti-footy song for you. All together now: "We... hate... football!" The Speedtwins were one of the first Dutch punk bands around, and this song is actually directed at the Argentinian junta that organised the ´78 World Cup. Find it on the exemplary compilation I´m Sure We´re Gonna Make It (Epitaph ´96, sadly out of print).

Speedtwins - Football Song MP3